


Here We Go Again

by BrightTerror



Series: BrightTerror's 2020 Whumptober [21]
Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: Blood and Injury, Both Emily and Morgan see Reid as their little brother and nothing can convince me otherwise, Concussions, Family Fluff, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Happy Ending, Hotch and Rossi are Reid's father figures, Hurt Spencer Reid, Hurt/Comfort, Protective Derek Morgan, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-30
Updated: 2020-10-30
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:35:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,656
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27285781
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BrightTerror/pseuds/BrightTerror
Summary: Whumptober Day 30 NOW WHERE DID THAT COME FROM? (Wound Reveal)Reid gets hurt again and has the brilliant (not really) idea of not telling his team, what could possibly go wrong....
Relationships: Aaron Hotchner & Spencer Reid, Derek Morgan & Spencer Reid, Emily Prentiss & Spencer Reid, Jennifer "JJ" Jareau & Spencer Reid, Spencer Reid & David Rossi
Series: BrightTerror's 2020 Whumptober [21]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1948378
Comments: 8
Kudos: 202
Collections: Whumptober 2020





	Here We Go Again

**Author's Note:**

> Vague references (spoilers) for s4ep24 "Amplification"  
> This isn't beta read, sorry for any typos or mistakes.

Their profile had been wrong. This rarely happened, today was just one of the few times they had the misfortune of being incorrect. 

_ Most  _ of their profile was accurate though. The unsub was supposed to be in his mid-thirties, which he was. He was supposed to be a white male, which he was. He was supposed to have a record and a complicated childhood due to his parents, which he had. The unsub was supposed to be working alone, which he  _ wasn’t _ . 

Nothing in their profile or investigation led them to have any suspicion that the unsub might not be working alone. All the signs pointed to him being too antisocial to deal with a group. So, when they entered his (very abandoned-looking) house to arrest him, they were definitely  _ not _ expecting to be outnumbered.

Things went sideways way quicker than expected. The multiple unsubs began shooting like crazy, not caring where they aimed, ending up hitting some of the columns keeping the house standing, causing debris to fall down. 

After a few minutes of complete uncertainty, the BAU managed to deescalate the situation. They were able to subdue 5 of the 8 unsubs and handcuffed them with barely any trouble from them, while the other 3 they had to be shot because it was certain they wouldn’t go without a fight. 

During the takedown, Emily was knocked down when one of the unsubs hit her with the butt of a gun to her head. She was conscious and overall fine, but she had a nasty, swollen bump in her temple. 

Reid instantly helped her as soon as the chaos was over. He grabbed a small flashlight he carried around and began checking her eye movements and reflexes to make sure she was alright. 

Emily’s eyes followed the light back and forth moderately well, she was squinting at the light and had a terrible headache but otherwise okay. Reid told her she most likely had a mild concussion, and it would be wise to go get it checked out to make sure it wasn’t going to get worse. 

“Thank you,  _ Doctor  _ Reid.” Emily grinned. “Don’t worry, unlike someone I know—and by someone I literally mean you— I actually do go to hospitals when I get hurt.” She put a bag of ice that someone gave her to her forehead. 

“Actually, when you were in that car accident a few years ago you were complaining all the way to the hospital.” Reid reminded her. “You had a horrible concussion and Morgan told me you were having cognitive problems and didn’t even remember shooting the entire pack of bullets.” Reid smiled. “I don't know if that counts towards your point.”

“Damn your eidetic memory.” Emily said with no real harshness to it. “And even if I complained, I still went.”

“Fair.” Reid gave her a nod and squinted his eyes. “Are you sure you’re okay?” He didn’t like how the bump in her head seemed to be growing as time passed. 

“I’ll live.” She grimaced. “What about you? You okay?” She looked at him worriedly, looking for any sign of distress. “Things got pretty rough earlier. None of us were expecting that many unsubs.”

“I’m alright.” He said a little too quickly. 

“ _ Reid. _ ” Emily raised an eyebrow. 

“I’m fine. Truly. I just think I hit myself against the table while I was taking cover from the bullets, so I’m a little sore. But apart from that I’m fine.” His side was hurting and throbbing, but he figured it was just going to leave a nasty bruise. As soon as they had taken down the unsubs, he had changed his FBI vest for the FBI jacket because it was getting cold and he didn’t have his usual sweater vest with him. 

They left the unsub’s house and team split in groups, one to take Emily to the doctors, —because she didn’t want an ambulance for just a hit in the head— and the others went to close the case at the station and take care of the necessary paperwork. 

Hotch, Rossi and JJ went back to the station while Reid, Morgan and Emily went to the doctor. Reid had been right with the diagnosis he gave Emily earlier, the nurse had informed her she did in fact have a mild concussion but it should go away after a few days, it was best if she took some painkillers and put ice on it for the time being. 

Reid accompanied her through the whole process and tried his best to ignore the growing pain on his abdomen. He should probably take some over the counter pain killers too, bruises were never fun and this specific one was being more of a nuisance than usual. He was dreading inspecting how bad it was when he checked later on, because he had a feeling it was going to be one of those ugly purple, blackish bruises that stayed for a while. Oh _ well, _ that would be a problem for his future self. Now he was helping Emily with her injury. 

Soon after, the three of them left the hospital and were on their way to drive back to the station to help the rest of their team. However, Hotch called and informed them the case was taken care of for now. They could just head back to the hotel to rest before the jet took them back home in the morning.

Reid was sitting in the backseat, while Emily was in the passenger’s seat and Morgan drove. His vision was becoming a bit blurry and he was feeling sluggish. On top of that his stomach was hurting and it was getting worse the more his adrenaline wore off. At least they were almost at the hotel and he could sleep it off before having to wake early to fly back home. 

He unzipped the FBI jacket because it was getting warm; Morgan liked to drive with the warmer on sometimes. As soon as he did, he felt a twist of pain and he instinctively grabbed his stomach where it hurt. 

He frowned and silently cursed when he brought his hand away and noticed, in the dim light of the car, that his fingers were coated in the all too familiar sticky red blood.  _ Oh fuck _ . This wasn’t good. So apparently, he wasn’t as fine as he thought but there wasn’t much, he could do now. He wasn’t  _ fully  _ bleeding out, if he was, he  _ would  _ have noticed it earlier, he was sure of it. He figured he could deal with it on his own once he was in his room. 

So, he quietly zipped his jacket back on—thank god the FBI equipment was waterproof, including jackets so his blood did not seep through— and cleaned his bloody hand with the inside of his shirt. His team had enough to worry about already.

They arrived at the hotel and Reid was feeling worse than before. Now that he was more aware of his injury, he was more attentive to his symptoms. At least now he had an explanation for his blurry vision and stumbling from earlier. Thankfully for him, the others didn’t notice. They all got in the elevator to get up to their rooms. 

Emily’s room was closer, so they left her in her room first, making sure to let it clear that all she needed was to call them if she needed  _ anything.  _ JJ—who was sharing a room with her— was on the way back from the station and she could help out once she got there, but in the meantime Morgan and Reid were there for whatever she might need. As they both had the displeasure of knowing from personal experience, concussions were not fun. 

It was after they left Emily in her room when everything started to go downhill for Reid. 

He began to consider the hypothesis that  _ maybe _ he wasn’t as fine as he had previously thought. Perhaps he wasn't in the right headspace to take care of his injury by himself, if his sudden dizziness was anything to go by. He held onto the corridor wall to not fall and gave his best shot to act normal so that Morgan wouldn't worry. 

Of course, Morgan noticed, frowning, he looked at him, concerned, trying to find what was wrong with the kid. “Reid? You okay?” 

Reid nodded. “Yeah.” Very unconvincing. 

“You look like you’re in pain and you’re sweating. Where are you hurt?” 

“‘m fine.” Reid could feel his body slowly shutting itself down. He exerted himself and the adrenaline was entirely gone, so there wasn’t much from keeping his body from stopping working well. Feeling how he went from bad to worse in a matter of seconds, he saw his vision darkened and then nothing. 

Morgan didn’t have a chance to call out Reid on the obvious lie he was telling him--because he was obviously  _ not _ okay-- cause next thing he knew, his friend was plummeting to the floor. His reflexes were great though, so he managed to catch him before he hit the ground. “Reid!” He yelled in pure fear. 

He must have been louder than he intended to because a few seconds after, a door was opened and Emily walked out with her gun ready. She saw Reid lying on the ground and put her gun away before running towards them. “What the hell happened? Is he okay?”

“He just collapsed.” Morgan frowned. “He looked like he was hurt but I didn’t get a chance to ask where.”

“Check his abdomen. Reid told me he hit a table or something back at the unsub’s house.”

Morgan didn’t waste any more time and took off Reid’s jacket to reveal a bloody shirt that was sticking to his skin. It wasn’t bloody enough that it was dripping, but it did make a circle of blood around his midsection. “Shit.” He cursed. “You knew?” he raised his head to glare at Emily. 

“ If I knew it was  _ this  _ bad, don't you think I would have said something? No, I  _ didn’t  _ know. He just told me it was a superficial hit, and it was just slightly bruised.” Emily gulped and took out her phone to call Hotch and an ambulance. 

Reid began to wake up. “Why am I on the floor?” He mumbled, squinting at the light. 

“You passed out.” Morgan was relieved he was back to consciousness. “You're bleeding, kid.”

“Oh.” Reid said unintelligently. “I’m sure I can fix it if I can get to my hotel room, I have a first aid kit.”

“Yeah, no. Not happening.” Morgan shook his head and helped him get up. 

“We’re getting you to a hospital.” Emily was dialling on her phone. Her head was aching but that could worry her later. Now she needed to get him to the hospital with Morgan’s help. So much for the resting time. 

“No ambulance.” Reid pouted. “If I have to go, I’m not going on one of those. They’re too loud, and they smell weird, and the model of vehicles they use for them here are not my favourite. I’m not dying so we can drive there.”

“I hate that you have enough experience with ambulances to pick favourites.” Emily grumbled. “But fine. Morgan is driving. I’ll call Hotch.” 

Morgan wrapped Reid’s arm around his neck and he practically carried him to the car. “Let’s go back to the hospital then. Maybe they’ll give us a discount for going twice in the span of an hour.” Morgan tried to joke. “Once you’re better we are definitely going to have a talk about this.” He muttered. 

Reid didn’t know when he fell asleep or passed out again but next thing, he knew he was in a hospital bed, once again. Noticing Morgan eating jello gave him a strong sense of Deja Vu from when he was poisoned by anthrax a few years back. “Got some for me?” He asked. 

Morgan snapped away from his thoughts when he heard Reid. “Hey.” He grinned. “Look who’s awake.” 

“How long was I out?” 

“Not long, like three hours. Doctors said your injury wasn’t that bad, but the exhaustion made it worse, which is probably why you passed out like that.” Morgan frowned. “Kid, you can’t over work yourself like this.”

“Sorry.” He said sheepishly. “I didn’t realise I was at that point of passing out.”

“You should have. You need to take better care of yourself.” He twisted his mouth. “Why didn’t you say something?”

“I didn’t realise I was hurt…” he trailed off. “But once I noticed it wasn't too bad I didn’t want to worry and inconvenience you. Emily was hurt.” He shrugged as if that was a valid explanation. 

“ _ Inconvenience _ ? Kid you are never an inconvenience, to any of us. We care about you and want to keep you around for a while, which is difficult considering you're almost dying every other day.” Morgan stared at him seriously, to convey he really meant it. 

“I wasn't going to die, it was just a minor injury…” he mumbled. 

“You get what I mean though, you get injured more times than any of us. Just be careful.” he paused. “Besides, we were  _ just _ at the hospital, it would have been better if you said something then, things would have been much easier and less stress inducing. You should have said something.”

“In my defence, I genuinely thought I was okay. Just a little bruised.”

“Reid… you had a slash on your stomach.  _ How  _ did you not notice you were bleeding?”

“I don’t know. It didn’t feel that bad. Thinking back, the blood loss would have explained the sluggishness.” 

“Kid you will be the death of me.” Morgan said exasperated but ruffled his hair fondly. “Emily and the rest want to come in, by the way. They have been waiting outside for you to wake up.” he typed a message to their group chat to let them know they could come in. 

A few moments later JJ, Emily, Hotch and Rossi walked in with smiles on their faces when they saw Reid seemed awake and much better than when they last saw him. 

“I mean what I said earlier. You really don’t go to hospitals when you get hurt huh.” Emily, she smiled with her eyes and mouth and hugged him. “Next time I’m just straight up taking you to a hospital after a takedown. It will be much easier.”

“I don’t get hurt  _ every  _ time though.”

“Close enough. You do get hurt a lot.” JJ chimed in and hugged him. Her eyes were red brimmed, and she looked concerned. “You scared me, Reid.”

“Sorry.” He didn’t know what else to say. He hated worrying his family. And it wasn’t as if he got hurt on purpose. 

“Reid, you have to take better care of yourself, we were all very worried.” Hotch began his speech. He was fretful when he got Emily’s call letting him know Reid was going to the hospital. This one time, it had scared him more than usual because he thought everyone was fine, Emily had gone to the hospital already so he figured everyone else was fine. Of course Reid wouldn't be. If he started getting grey hairs before his time he would blame it on Reid in its entirety. 

“Don't worry, Hotch, I already gave him that talk.” Morgan informed him with a smile. “See, we all care about you,” he told Reid. 

“ I'm fine. I haven't died yet. I have survived all of my near death experiences, so chances are I will keep surviving them, it's that simple.” Reid contemplated telling them the exact statistics of his chances of survival, but he figured they were too tired to listen through that talk. 

“It is definitely  _ not _ that simple,  _ Patatino.”  _ Rossi chuckled and shook his head. “I'm glad you're okay, though.” He hugged him.

“Yeah, me too.” 

**Author's Note:**

> A big thanks to [AppalachianApologies](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AppalachianApologies/pseuds/AppalachianApologies) for motivating me to write this and for helping me plot the fic. When we were brainstorming this prompt she said something that made me laugh and so I will share it here since it was 80% of what fueled my motivation to write. "and then everyone all freaks out and it's some good whump and we can sit back and sip our iced tea with Kermit the frog and enjoy the whump"
> 
> She is also doing whumptober so definitely check her fics out if you like Criminal Minds. 
> 
> Find me on Tumblr:[BrightTerror](https://brightterror.tumblr.com/)
> 
> Have an Amazing Day


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